“We have had an unusual number of accident claims recently that have forced us to consider this as an option,” Jim Gillespie, Yellow Cab general manager, said in a statement. “If the filing is necessary, we expect to be in a stronger position than before the filing.” He did not return calls for comment. Organized as an owner co-operative, Yellow Cab told its 300 members in November that the move might be necessary.

Yellow Cab, like the taxi industry worldwide, has seen its business ravaged by upstart ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, which charge lower fares and can flood the streets with cars. Taxi companies say that the newcomers benefit from looser restrictions.

But this potential Chapter 11 filing seems related to the case of Ida Fua, a Bay Area lawyer whose Yellow Cab driver allegedly didn’t notice a freeway traffic jam and rammed into a stopped car at 60 to 65 mph in 2011.

Yellow Cab tried to duck liability on the premise that the driver was an independent contractor. The jury rejected that contention and found that the driver was an “ostensible employee,” making Yellow Cab responsible for his actions.

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The argument echoes those about the status of Uber and Lyft drivers, some of whom are now suing to be reclassified as employees.

Yellow Cab carries $1 million in liability insurance — only a fraction of the $8 million awarded to Fua — leading her lawyer to call it “grossly underinsured.”

“Yellow Cab has been hit with large lawsuits before, but they have never increased their insurance policy limits,” Fua’s lawyer, Todd Emanuel, said in an e-mail. “Instead, they pretend they don’t own or operate many of these cabs, and they hang their drivers out to dry by claiming the drivers are entirely independent of the taxi company.” Emanuel said his client, as a major creditor, would have a voice in Bankruptcy Court.

Yellow Cab’s move seems similar to that of a Midwestern counterpart. In March, a passenger severely injured in a cab crash was awarded $26 million from Yellow Cab of Chicago. The company filed for bankruptcy protection nine hours after the verdict and told news organizations that it could not pay the damages.

Yellow Cab asserted that its business is still strong, with an average 15,000 fares a day in San Francisco and the recent release of an electronic ride-hailing app, Yo Taxi.

But some San Francisco Yellow Cab drivers said they have already felt an impact. Normally the company pays about $1,000 a month to rent a medallion — the city-issued right to drive a cab — during times when a medallion owner is not driving. One driver said he and other medallion holders haven’t received payments for a couple of months because the co-op is cash-strapped. That payment used to be about $2,000 a month a few years ago, before the advent of Uber and Lyft, he said.